2nd Chapter

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My name is Ismihan, Ismihan Sultana. Youngest daughter of Sultan Murad III and his beloved wife Safiye Sultan. I had been born in big family. My father had twenty two sons and twenty eight daughters.

My mother Safiye was bornt venetian. At young age she was took in Harem of my father, Sultan Murad Khan. When my mother came to Harem, my great-grandfather Sultan Suleyman Khan was ruler of this great Ottoman Empire.

My mother Safiye gave birth to my brother, Mehmed, the one who ascended the throne after my father's death. Besides him, he gave birth to Humaşah, Fahriye, Yahya and me. I was bornt as twin sister of Yahya.

I was only ten when my father died and my brother Mehmed ascended the throne. The tradition says that when one ascends the throne, he has to kill his brothers to make sure no one can take throne from him.

So my brother Mehmed followed the tradition. He killed twenty seven of his brothers. When I was only ten years old, I had to see aghas carrying twenty seven little coffins coming out of Palace.

My heart was hurt mostly, because I knew my brother Yahya is between them. I was closest with him, because he was my twin brother. We were the youngest children.

Later, my mother said to me that Yahya wasn't killed. She sent him on Balkan to a family who would take care of him. She did that because she didn't want my brother to die at age of only ten.

It was easier to me when I found out Yahya wasn't killed, but what would that mean to us when we didn't know anything about him. We didn't knew how does he live, is he happy, or is he even alive? We didn't knew where he even is. Mother sent a lot of letters to the family which should have took care of him, but they haven't answered on one of them.

At the age of fourteen, my mother decided to marry me. At the same day, my sister Fahriye had wedding too. My mother decided to marry me for Yavuz Ali-paşa. Vizier which was 37 years older than me.

Day of my wedding was also day of my funeral. My mother married me with man who is elder than her. My mother didn't care that I am still a teenager. My mother sent me with him in Egypt.

My mother didn't care that I am still a child. My mother didn't care that I still wanted to play around in Palace and have fun.

My mother decided to marry me for him to have stronger connections with influential political figures. My mother decided to do that to have more power to control the Great Divan.

My marriage ceremony lasted for seven days. During those seven days, I cried. Red veil saved me so no one could see my tears.

If someone would see my face on the days of my wedding, they would be confused if this is my wedding or my funeral.

And it was my funeral. Happy child Ismihan who only wanted to play and have fun around in harem, died. Ismihan who became cold, insensitive and doesn’t care for anyone was born.

My mother was main reason of my problems. Her ambitions made me suffer. Because of her, I had to stop my happy times and go to Egypt to have my own family.

Only good thing that happened to me, was that Yavuz Ali-paşa understood my pain. He never forced me on anything. He knew I didn't want to have family with him, and he respected that.

Only with our marriage, he got everything he could ask for. He became Imperial Damat (son-in-law) , and soon, he became Grand Vizier of Ottoman Empire.

My life in Egypt was unhappy. Yavuz was always busy and I never had to spend time with him, which was fine with me. But I had no one with myself. My whole family was in Istanbul.

I was always jelaous on Fahriye. I knew she didn't marry for a man she loved, and that her husband was also lot elder than her, but at the end she married in Istanbul and she was close to our family. She was close to our mother and brother Sultan Mehmed Khan.

Everything changed when my brother got into a fight with Yavuz Ali-paşa. Yavuz blamed me for the fight, because he thought I am telling him how unhappy I am.

Yavuz started drinking a lot, and every day ended with his beating of me. Every night I went to sleep crying, because I was afraid of my husband.

I knew only if I would repeat three times "I divorce you," I would be divorced from him. But, I knew he would beat me then again.

I couldn't do it here while I had no one to stand by my side.

I prayed every day to go as soon as possible in Istanbul. There I could do that. I knew my brother would allow me to divorce from him, and he would allow me to return to life in Palace.

But, suddendly, I've got bad news. My brother, Sultan Mehmed Khan, passed away. His young son Ahmed, became new Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Ahmed didn't kill his younger brother Mustafa, because Ahmed has none heir when he ascended the throne. His rule to stop killing brothers, made me so happy. Ahmed may be young, but he did what was important.

When he became Sultan, he had to pay for his soldiers. As Istanbul Treasury didn't have enough money, he called my husband to bring Egyptian Treasury to Istanbul. I decided I will go with him in Istanbul. This was perfect oportunity for me.

I turned to my Palace in Egypt for the last time, as I promised myself, I would never ever return here.

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